MILLIONAIRE DIVORCED

Evening Star, Issue 15481, 1 May 1914, Page 5

MILLIONAIRE DIVORCED

MRS GOELET'S AMAZING STORY-OF CRUELTY. ;. -....- HUMILIATED BEFORE GUESTS AXD SERVANTS. Spied upon by servants, humiliated before her guests, and ridiculed in every possible way by her millionaire husband, Mrs Robert Goelet, a well-known Philadelphia heiress, was driven to "seek the protection of the divorce laws. Amidst fashionable society in New York, the ca6e, which was not, defended) caused as great a stir;-as the marriage ceremony." Goelet (formerly Miss ■ Elsie Wheleh)' married Mr|*Robert Goelet, the son of the celebrated aire yachtsman, in 1905. MissAliee'Roosevelt was one of her bridesmaids. Mr Robert Goelet is the brother of the Duchess of Roxburghe. When the petition, for a divorce was heard at Newport Mrs Goelet deposed that the cruelty consisted of insulting and abusive language, accompanied "by numerous petty acts designed to annoy and embarrass \*her to such an extent that sha suffered sejious impairment of health. She had been epied upon by the servant?, and on one occasion she had actually hired private detectives to protect her guests against her husband.— Defendant's valet, Drake, sho asserted, was always offensive to her, but her husband refused to dismiss him. Drake clogged her footsteps wherever 6he went, listened, to her telephone conversations, made a list of ail the callers, and reported to his master everyone with whom she talked. Her husband never answered hear when she spoke, and at dinner parties he gazed fixedly at her while advising her unmarried guests never to marry,'ae -marriage was a hopeless failure. He checked all Jier accounts, and accused her of extravagance if ehe ate more' than one chop at meals. He alleged that she-ate too much fruit, and ask'id her not to drink too much chocolate; because chocolate was expensive. In the autumn of 1913 he wrote clown rules governing her guests' behaviour at dinner, and so forth, and generally made himself objectionable at all times, more especially when 'guests were, present; On one occasion he told the guests that he would throw his wife out of the house if she should participate in a suffrage parade. In recent months, when she gave a dinner party, he would have his own meals served in an adjoining room in full sight of her guests. He described her liking for. music and art as a mere affectation. When Mrs Goelet entertained the Grand Duke Alexander of Russia last summer she wired for Mr Goelet to come for the occasion, and he humiliated her by refusing. .."He objected to the Grand Duke as an irhproper person, although his own mother had entertained the Grand Duke on a previous occasion- when he visited America, and Mr Goelet was personally acquainted with the nobleman—a near relative of the Tsar of Russia." Finally Mr Goelet ordered the servants not to serve his wife's guesta at dinner, and she was compelled to hire a public caterer. She was obliged "to leaver her husband last January, because she became excessively nervous, and feared a complete breakdown.—Evidence in support of these' charges was given by a valet named Wells, by several of Mrs Goelet's friends, and by her physician.—The Court granted petitioner, a divorce on the ground of extreme cruelty, which, the Judge ruled, "may consist in insulting, abusive language as .well a? physical violence."—By agreement Mrs Goelet was granted the sole custody of the two-year-old son Peter until he reaches the ago of nine. The custody of the six-year-old son, Ogden, was divided equally between Mr and Mrs Goolet. " .-' :..'■". ■ ■--•